1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to radiation protective articles of clothing, also referred to as an energy absorptive articles of clothing, and especially to a flexible light weight material that is in the form of an article of clothing and intended for use in attenuation of electromagnetic radiation, particularly in the gonadal region of a human body. In normal use, the article would be used in conjunction with other articles of clothing that are also intended for protection against electromagnetic radiation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Exposure of humans to energy from a wide variety of sources is increasing e.g. to energy in the form of sound or electromagnetic radiation including x-rays or alpha, beta or gamma radiation. It has been appreciated for a long time that radiation is harmful to the human body, especially to the chest, abdominal and reproductive or gonadal portions of the body. Articles of clothing intended to protect the human body from such radiation include aprons, vests, skirts and many other forms of apparel. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3 996 620 of G. J. Maine, issued 1976 Dec. 14, describes an apron panel intended to cover the front of the body from neck to at least the knees and U.S. Pat. No. 4 196 355, also of G. J. Maine, issued 1980 Apr. 01, describes a two-piece radiation shield garment in the form of a vest and skirt.
Radiation protection materials have traditionally been based on lead, usually metallic lead, as the agent that provides protection against radiation. Lead is a dense material and a significant amount is required in order to provide material with adequate attenuation properties. Thus, articles of clothing intended for use in attenuation of electromagnetic radiation have a tendency to be heavy, which tends to discourage use by an operator of equipment that emits electromagnetic radiation.
Efforts have been made to reduce the weight of the protective material while at the same time providing equivalent attenuation properties. For example, published European Patent application No. 0 371 699 of M. J. Lilley, J. M. MacLeod, G. P. Reh, G. E. Mawdsley and M. J. Yaffe, published 1990 Jun. 06, describes radiation protection material that is lighter in weight than the traditional lead or lead vinyl materials while providing equivalent protection. Nonetheless, it would be of interest to potential users of radiation protection material to further decrease the weight of articles of clothing that are required to provide adequate protection.
A gonadal radiation protection article has now been found which provides additional protection in the gonadal area of a human body.
Accordingly, the present invention provides an article for protection of gonadal areas, of a human body, against radiation, comprising:
(a) an elongated sheet of fabric material with a first end and a second end and having a width of 10-30 cm;
(b) at least two complementary fastener means, one of which is located juxtaposed to the first end and the other being spaced apart from the first end, said sheet of fabric being adapted to fold back on itself and be held in the folded position by the fastener means, thereby forming means to secure the article around the waist of a human body; and
(c) a layer of flexible radiation protection material with a width of 10-30 cm and extending longitudinally from the second end towards the first end, said layer having energy attenuation properties at least equivalent to 0.1 mm lead at 100 keV, said layer being of a length such that when the fold is located at waist level on a human body the layer extends from above to below the gonadal area, the sheet of fabric material and the layer of flexible radiation protection material being attached circumferentially on three sides so as to form a pouch.
In an embodiment of the article of the invention, the fastener means are snaps or Velcro.RTM. strips.
In another embodiment, the width of the layer of flexible radiation protection material is not greater than the width of the elongated sheet of fabric material.